First Flight in the U.S Crashed my M3

[DougMcC]

“Chubby Checker” Part of my preflight on EVERY pre launch is to confirm that the drone on the map heading is correctly pointing at an obvious landmark or tree then twisting 90 to 180 degrees. The movement must correlate on the map mode. This pretty much rules out starting out with the dreaded yaw error. I have launched a few feet from a manhole cover IF the Chubby Checker is negative. Perhaps Only senior pilots will understand the name.

 

[RodPad]

This is why I try and read all of these posts - to learn things so I can not crash my drone again. The practice of ensuring that the drone is pointing in the correct direction on the maps was something new for me - I had heard it but it seemed odd to me until I understood WHY it was important - I now do that on all my flights to make sure there are no compass issues.

I'm the same, I read all I can.
When I crash I will already know what I did wrong.

Rod ..

 

[Capt KO]

My pickup is a drone magnet. No matter the surface I launch from, if the truck is within 8’ I’m (falsely) warned to calibrate compass. Instead, I just move further away until warning stops. Thankfully once airborne, I can fly from inside the cab without interference. No such problem with my wife’s van. Anyways, that little map arrow is a drone saver.

 

[tubemkr]

That's normal when you are in a new location or you haven't flown for a few weeks.
This explains it:

Time To First Fix – Hot Start, Warm Start, Cold Start. -

Time to First Fix (commonly abbreviated to TTFF) is the process of time in which it takes a GPS enabled device to obtain signal from enough satellites to determine accurately its location. A GPS receiver must have three sets of data before it can accurately locate itself. GPS satellite signals...

gpsbeam.com

Your drone will take longer still if buildings, trees etc are blocking the skyview.

As the Mavic 3 is receiving sats from 3 separate gps systems, having 8 sats is almost none.
10 is not much better.
Instead of thinking there's a magic number, you need to wait until the sat icon on the screen turns white and drone records its home point.

It would help if you posted the logs.

This is what I do. Wait till satellite icon is white and “homepiont updated” message is given. I’d rather err to the side of caution. The only time I haven’t resulted in my Mavic Pro lifting off and jettisoning horizontally at full speed, straight into the side of a brand spanking new Lincoln Navigator that was not mine. Oops.

 

[Meta4]

The only time I haven’t resulted in my Mavic Pro lifting off and jettisoning horizontally at full speed, straight into the side of a brand spanking new Lincoln Navigator that was not mine. Oops.

If your drone took off horizontally at full speed, that was due to a yaw error.
Waiting for the homepoint wouldn't have made any difference.

 

[tubemkr]

If your drone took off horizontally at full speed, that was due to a yaw error.
Waiting for the homepoint wouldn't have made any difference.

True. I had put it on a new concrete slab at our church. It gave several warnings but I thought it would be fine to just lift off a little and let it get all the satellites etc. Boy, was I wrong. It appears the Mavic Pro is way more sensitive to magnetic interference than the Mini 3 Pro. There are several places around my house that the Mavic warns me but the Mini never does.

 

[Meta4]

It appears the Mavic Pro is way more sensitive to magnetic interference than the Mini 3 Pro. There are several places around my house that the Mavic warns me but the Mini never does.

They are all as sensitive as each other.
When getting a yaw error on reinforced concrete surfaces, just an inch or two difference in the position of the drone can make a big difference.
You'll only get a warning if the strength of the magnetic field is more than the earth's field.
But if it's a similar strength but different direction, you can still induce a yaw error without any warning from the compass.